signature

[Fr., from Lat. sig natura, fem. sing. of fut. part. of sig no to sign (q. v.); Sp. sig natura; Ital. sig natura, segnatura.] I. Ordinary Language: *1. A mark, sign, or stamp impre ed. "The signature and stamp of power divine." Cowper: Retirement, 54. 2. The name of a person written with his own hand, and intended to signify his approval or ratification of the writing which precedes. 3. An external mark or figure by which physiognomists pretend to discover the temper or charac ter of persons. II. Technically : 1. Music (pl): The signs of chromatic alteration, sharps or flats, placed at the commencement of a composition, immediately after the clef, and affecting all notes of the same names as the degrees upon which they stand, unle their influence is in any case counteracted by a contrary sign. (Grove.) *2. Old Med.: A mark or sign on any substance, especially on a plant, supposed to indicate its use as a remedy. [.] "The doctrine, that plants bear certain marks and sig . natures, indicative of their qualities or properties."Browne: Works (ed. Bohn), i. 199 (Note 8). 3. Print.: A distinguishing letter or number at the bottom of the first page of each sheet of a book, to indicate its order to the folder and binder. Signatures are sometimes inserted at the bottoms of other pages, as the third, fifth, and seventh in octavo, the third in quarto, and so on of the other styles. The signature of the first sheet of matter is B, A being reserved for the title-page, index, contents, .; the next would be c, and so on. The old Roman alphabet, which is destitute of Jvw, is adopted, so that the twenty-fourth sheet will be AA or 2A, according to the custom of the office. Doctrine of Signatures : *Old Med.: (See extract.) "Such notions as these were elaborated into the old medical theory known as the Doctrine of Signatures, which supposed that plants and minerals indicated by their external characters the diseases for which nature had of a sovereign; as in England, one of the seals for the authentication of royal grants. In Scotland the signet is a seal by which royal warrants for the purpose of justice seem to have been at one time authenticated. Hence the title of "clerks to the signet," or "writers to the signet," a cla of legal practitioners in Edinburgh who formerly had important privileges, which are now nearly all abol. ished. They act generally as agents or attorneys in conducting causes before the Court of Se ion. "The Parliament laid claim to a Veto on the nomination of the Judges, and a umed the power of stopping the signet , in other words, of suspending the whole administration of justice, till this claim should be allowed." -Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., ch. xiii. Clerk of the signet : An officer in England continually in attendance upon the principal Secretary of State, who has the custody of the privy signet. signet-ring, s. A ring containing a signet or private seal. "His signet- ring she bore, Which oft in sport adorned her hand before." Byron: Corsair , ii. 12. *sig-nět-ed, adj . [Eng. signet; -ed.] Stamped, sealed, or marked with a signet. *sig-ni-fer, s. [Lat. signum =a sign, and fero = to bear.] The Zodiac. *sig-ni-fi-ance, *sig-ni-fi-aunce, s. [Old Fr. sign i fiance .] [SIGNIFY.] Signification. *sig-nif-ic, a. [Lat. sign i fico =to signify (q. v.).] Significant.